Dear Super-humans, You Aren’t Made of Glass

“Don’t squat. It’s bad for your knees.”

Awkward. I’d already sat down to read the warning and how are we getting off the toilet?

“Don’t deadlift. You’ll hurt your back.”

Fine. The laundry basket can develop independence and levitate into the kitchen

“Don’t lift overhead.”

Excellent. We’re now a bottom-shelf household. All overhead kitchen cupboards are cancelled.

Meanwhile, parents carry sleeping children upstairs, servers balance loaded trays, and somebody insists on bringing every grocery bag inside in one trip. Apparently, lifting becomes suspicious only when the weight has a number printed on it.

These tasks place different demands on us. But the contradiction deserves attention: why are we frightened of preparing for the movement’s life keeps asking us to perform?

The issue is not that injuries are imaginary. It is that “protect this while it heals” can become “avoid this for the rest of your life.”

You are allowed to need rehabilitation without accepting retirement from movement.

Who put a “fragile” sticker on you?

A sore back becomes a “bad back.” A difficult squat becomes “my knees can’t.” A temporary setback starts introducing itself as your personality.

You tweak your knee. Someone says, “Be careful.” Fair enough.

Somewhere along the way, “reduce this for now” becomes “never bend deeply again.” Years later, the warning is still running the show, without anyone reviewing what might now be possible.

Ask yourself: am I following a recovery plan or repeating an old restriction?

We genuinely have a movement problem: adults not meeting activity guidelines increased globally from roughly 26% in 2010 to 31% in 2022. That does not establish an all-time injury epidemic, but it hardly suggests we need more reasons to avoid activity. PubMed

This is not about accusing injured people of making excuses. It is about challenging advice that leaves them with restrictions but no route forward.

A temporary modification should not automatically become a permanent limitation.

The useful question is: “What can I do now, and how will we progress it?”

“Be careful” is incomplete advice without “here’s how to become more capable.”

Your body came with a repair crew

After muscle injury, immune cells help clear damaged material and coordinate repair. Muscle stem cells, called satellite cells, activate and contribute to rebuilding muscle fibres. Inflammation is part of this response, not automatically evidence that everything is going wrong (Ziemkiewicz et al., 2021). PubMed Central (PMC)

Tendons repair differently: cells produce collagen, then that supporting structure gradually reorganises. Healing does not guarantee that a tendon regains its original mechanical properties (Darrieutort-Laffite et al., 2024). PubMed

Appropriate loading helps guide adaptation through mechanotransduction: cells sense physical force and convert it into biological signals that influence tissue rebuilding. Your tissues do not just endure exercise. They respond to it (Khan & Scott, 2009). PubMed Central (PMC)

But the dose and timing matter. A healing tendon is not obliged to meet your muscle’s deadline or your holiday booking.

You have rebuilding machinery. Give it instructions, materials and time not panic or punishment.

Pain is information, not a character reference

Pain does not make you weak. Nor does its intensity precisely measure tissue damage. Biological, psychological and social factors influence pain; that does not make it imaginary (Raja et al., 2020). PubMed Central (PMC)

So neither “ignore it” nor “never move again” is a sensible universal answer.

In a trial involving 492 people with persistent disabling back pain, personalised physiotherapy addressing pain beliefs, emotions and movement behaviours improved activity limitations more than usual care (Kent et al., 2023). PubMed

This was not positive thinking in gym leggings. It was supported practice: understanding the problem and rebuilding what people could do.

Your pain deserves attention. Your fear does not automatically deserve the final decision.

The band isn’t the problem. The missing progression is.

A supported chair rise can be demanding rehabilitation. So can a carefully chosen band exercise. Difficulty belongs to the person doing it not the person judging from the next squat rack.

But ask where the exercise is taking you.

A review covering 110 tendinopathy studies found that programmes using added resistance and allowing recovery between sessions tended to produce better outcomes. More daily exercises were not automatically better (Pavlova et al., 2023). PubMed

When your goal is lifting a toddler, carrying equipment or returning to sport, ask how rehabilitation will prepare you for those demands.

Forty exercises and a colour-coded folder are not automatically a plan. Your tendon cannot read stationery.

Rehab should have a next chapter

A light exercise can be exactly right after injury. Mocking it because it looks easy is like criticizing a first swimming lesson because nobody crossed the Atlantic.

But where is the progression?

If your rehabilitation has more sequels than Fast & Furious, you are allowed to ask where the plot is going.

Ask: what are we building toward? More resistance? Greater movement? Returning to work or sport?

Rehab needs a direction not just another appointment.

Starting light is sensible. Staying there without reviewing your goals and capacity is worth questioning.

Life keeps increasing the difficulty

Children grow heavier. Stairs remain stairs. The suitcase does not apologise because you turned sixty.

Squatting practises lowering and rising; hinging practises lifting from below. Pushing, pulling and carrying develop useful strength. No particular barbell exercise is compulsory.

And trainability does not disappear at retirement. In a ten-week trial of 100 frail nursing-home residents averaging 87, those receiving supervised resistance training increased measured strength by 113%, compared with 3% among non-exercisers. Walking speed and stair-climbing power improved too (Fiatarone et al., 1994). PubMed

That is not a personal guarantee. It is compelling evidence of remaining capacity.

For students, parents, desk workers and retirees, train toward what life requires. For nurses, servers and tradespeople, account for demanding shifts rather than simply adding exhaustion.

Train for the life you want not only the movements you currently find easy.

Keep the commitment. Adjust the assignment.

After appropriate assessment, choose a tolerable entry point: perhaps a lighter load, shorter range or supported variation. Practise consistently, monitor symptoms during and after activity, and increase demands gradually. Persistent worsening calls for reassessment, not stubbornness. Achilles tendinopathy guidelines explicitly recommend education, load management and progressive strengthening (de Vos et al., 2021). PubMed Central (PMC)

Progress might mean handling more load or doing a task with fewer symptoms. A quieter tendon on the sofa does not establish readiness for full sporting demands. Continuous training means continuity of the plan, not hammering injured tissue every day. Protection and recovery belong in that plan too. PubMed Central (PMC)

Eat enough to support repair, including adequate protein (Tipton, 2015), and protect sleep rather than treating exhaustion as dedication (Saner et al., 2020). PubMed Central (PMC)

Motion is lotion but you need the right dose, not the entire bottle.

Dear superhuman, rebuild your options

At CraftFit, fitness as a lifestyle means purposeful strength, adaptable training and recovery connected to your actual life, alongside clinical care when needed.

Ask what you are rebuilding, how you will measure progress, and what comes next. Not every setback needs a dramatic comeback montage, or a cool Instagram come back quote smh. Sometimes it needs a sensible Tuesday, repeated.

You aren’t made of glass! Respect the injury without surrendering the rest of your possibilities.

Health note: New or worsening weakness, loss of bladder or bowel control, or severe symptoms after trauma need urgent assessment not an exercise experiment. Follow injury-specific medical restrictions. (HealthLink BC). HealthLink BC